Effect of pre-enucleation radiotherapy on the viability of human choroidal melanoma cells

Using standard tissue culture techniques we cultured cells from 12 large choroidal melanomas to assess the capacity of pre-enucleation radiotherapy to decrease the viability of melanoma cells. Specimens from the six melanomas that received 40 Gy given in 20 daily fractions did not grow in tissue culture. Specimens from the six nonirradiated tumours did grow, with a mean in-vitro doubling time of 39.6 hours. The results show that the applied regimen of pre-enucleation radiotherapy decreased the viability of choroidal melanoma cells. Further study is needed to determine the correlation between the in-vitro characteristics of irradiated and nonirradiated choroidal melanomas.